Caused to Fall
by ParadigmShifter
Summary: The Nephilim, in many ways, were the antithesis of the Angels. In a time when the Angels have turned against mankind, the blood of the Nephilim flows. What does this mean for the Eva pilots, though?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: GAINAX, Anno and quite a few others own Neon Genesis Evangelion. I don't.

Title: Caused to Fall

Author: Paradigm Shifter

Rating: R. Mature. 15. Whatever you want to call it, I don't care.

Thanks to: Trevelyan for putting up with all of my shit.

Note 1: Like much of NGE, will draw heavy religious influence. That doesn't mean it's sweetness and light, or lacking in adult situations. People forget that sooner or later, all stories are about one thing: blood. Make of that what you will.

Note 2: Pitiful attempt to get muse to play. Might or might not continue – I'll have to see how the bitch is feeling. Gah.

-

"…Nephilim."

That one word sent a ripple of confusion around the chamber that SEELE were meeting in. Glares met each other angrily, only to move on to alternative targets when each stare was met with an equally harsh one.

And Ikari Gendo sat motionless through all of it, gloved hands clasps in front of his face, obscuring all but his cold eyes from view. He already knew. He had not spoken the word, but even with years of separation, a father knew their child.

And Ikari Shinji, for better or worse, was his son.

"We must gain further leverage on him if he is," Lorenz cut the buzz of conversation off abruptly. "He would be too powerful to control directly."

_Control_, Gendo sneered in his mind; _control of my son is as easy as breathing. He is so weak minded and subservient that everyone around him orders him about._ His fingers flexed minutely. _I had almost hoped that Katsuragi might toughen him up. Soryu might have done had she not been so… overbearing. As it is, she just broke what little spine he had developed with the deaths of the early Angels._

Instead of saying this, he coldly stated, "That will not be a problem."

"Reassurances are not sufficient this time, Ikari," Lorenz snapped, "We cannot allow Instrumentality to be disrupted by a factor that you fail to take into full and proper consideration."

"I said that it would not be a problem," Gendo repeated calmly, "and that is what I meant."

A hand moved down to kill the connection to the members of SEELE, and he sat back. Fuyutsuki moved out of the darkness behind the commanders' chair to stand at his side.

"That moment of temper could prove to be a problem," the grey-haired academic observed distantly.

"SEELE do not know the full import of what they have uncovered. If the Nephilim are walking the earth, and we have one of them standing there in the form of my son… it will only aid our intentions for Instrumentality."

"I do not believe Shinji will allow himself to be used in such a way," Fuyutsuki calmly countered, "he had proven to show an inner strength when most needed."

"That," Ikari Gendo said coldly, "is exactly what I am after."

-

During this conversation, Ikari Shinji himself was involved in a very pleasant dream which involved him, Rei and an apartment blessedly free of both his guardian and his fire-breathing housemate.

It wasn't a dirty dream.

Well, not unless you counted the whipped-cream, the strawberries and the chocolate sauce.

…

…but they were in a bowl!

Honest!

It was a romantic dream.

Rei was smiling softly at him across the table as she sampled the dessert that he had made to complement the dinner they had shared before it.

As she nodded in appreciation, Shinji felt a large grin spread slowly across his face.

As she offered the fork to him – Japanese utensils being little to no use for the European-style meal he had prepared – bearing its load of a strawberry, cream and sauce… well, he could have fainted from the pleasure.

Ikari Shinji was a simple soul.

Or so he thought.

Just as the fork neared his lips, he was disturbed by an insistent beeping noise that cut right through his enjoyment of the moment.

-

Opening his eyes, Shinji regarded his clock with an expression that would likely have parallels drawn to the look any man gave another before he hauled back and dropped them with a right hook.

Instead, he reached out an arm and dragged it off the shelf by the wire.

That failed to silence it.

Sighing, he buried his head under his pillow and tried to recapture the dream he had been having.

That also failed.

The 'head-under-the-pillow' trick failed far more spectacularly, however, when Asuka nearly tore his door off the runner in annoyance at being awoken by the - admittedly - obnoxious sounding alarm.

"Baka-Shinji! Can't you do anything right? Just get out of bed to turn your alarm off, you lazy pervert, rather than forcing innocent girls to come into your room to do it for you!" Asuka faux-gasped, "You planned this, didn't you? To get me into your room and have your way with me? Pervert! Mi-sa-tooooo!"

Fortunately for Asuka, Shinji was facing away from her. As it was, the wall got a death-glare that he was surprised didn't leave scorch marks. Two thoughts ran through his mind at that moment. The first was a cynical and somewhat depressed self-analysis of how the day was going to move on from there, and the second was something akin to 'shut up and go away, I have a headache'.

Which he did.

Asuka bawling her head off would give anyone a headache.

When there was no sound from the room of his guardian, Asuka moved off to make the morning of the likely hung-over woman even more of a misery than it was already going to be.

After one mouthful of beer – and a daily demonstration of exactly how over-indulgence left you the next morning – Shinji swore he was never going to touch the stuff. He couldn't understand why Misato enjoyed drinking it, but he could understand why she used it as an escape.

She drowned her sorrows; he lost his in his cello.

It only lasted as long as the music played or as long as the drunken stupor… but it was effective for a time.

And that time was all that was needed.

It was a pity that since moving to Tokyo 3 he had not had a great deal of opportunity to indulge in that pressure valve.

He climbed slowly out of bed; his morning calm lost, before proceeding to dress after sliding the door shut again.

It would not do to offend Asuka's delicate sensibilities if she should walk past and see him semi-nude. Despite it being her that opened his door in the first place, and then proceeded to leave it that way… it would be his fault.

And if Shinji was to be honest with himself, he would be perfectly happy to have as little aggravation in the day as possible. He felt unnaturally tired, despite having his normal number of hours of sleep.

"Akagi-sensei said as much after the sync-test yesterday," Shinji whispered to himself, "Am I not sleeping well?"

Now dressed, he opened his door and moved past the still ranting Asuka to the kitchen. There he began to make breakfast and lunch. Misato was easy to cook for in the mornings. Give her a couple of aspirin, a couple of cans of beer and some toast and she was… recovering from her hangover.

Nothing on earth would make Shinji describe the groaning woman as 'happy' at any time before midday. Unless, of course, she was teasing him about girls.

Feeling eyes on him, he found PenPen looking at him philosophically before the bird moved off with a towel around its neck to the bathroom. The last glance the bird shot Misato's door left Shinji with the distinct feeling the bird had been asking, 'You think _you've_ got it bad? Look at the shit _I've_ had to put up with since before you showed up!'

It was funny in a sad sort of way.

Shinji found his hands moving automatically as he prepared the two bento that would be required for the day. He once asked Misato if she wanted one for when she worked at NERV – knowing full well that the woman never drank on duty, and for that matter, rarely ate while on duty either. The whole of the bridge crew seemed to subsist on coffee and the odd bar of chocolate from the canteen vending machine.

He turned slightly pink as he realised that he was fleetingly wondering how Maya kept her figure with all that caffeine and chocolate.

Finished making both breakfast and lunch, he hesitatingly called out, "A-Asuka? If you don't get ready soon, we'll be late…"

He shrunk back into the kitchen as her response was loud and vehement, "Baka-Shinji! Why didn't you tell me earlier!"

There was a slam as her door closed violently.

Second later, Misato slouched out of her room. She looked around blearily and grinned.

"Oh, good, she's gone."

The crack of a ring-pull alerted Shinji that unless he wanted to be deafened, covering his ears was a wise tactical move within the next two seconds.

glug

glug

glug

…and now, the obtaining of the last few dregs…

slurp

Yep. Such was his daily routine.

Misato's loud cry to meet the day cut through right on time, "Yeeeeee-aaah! Ah! Nothing starts the day better than Yebisu!"

Shinji looked at his guardian and part-time alcoholic, "Is… is that really good for you so early in the day?"

Misato made a moue with her mouth and squinted at him across the table where she had collapse in a chair, "Shush, you. You just don't understand the glory that is Yebisu!"

Plucking up some courage – which he had seemed to possess when initially living with Misato but had since died courtesy of Asuka – he said casually, "With how you were last night, I'm not really certain that I would like to, Misato-san."

"_Last night_, eh, Shinji-kun?" Misato leered at him, "And what do you know what I was doing last night, hm?"

Shinji turned red with embarrassment, "I-I-I… I didn't mean it in such a way, Misato-san!"

Misato waved a hand at him, "Oh quiet, I know you didn't. Yeesh. You're no fun to tease any more… I know just how you're going to react!"

Shinji returned to a more normal colour, "Then I would like it if you stopped, Misato-san…"

Misato pouted in disappointment.

The family moment was disturbed by their other housemate barging out of her room and grabbing Shinji by the collar.

"Baka-Shinji! If you don't hurry, we're going to be late!"

Misato blinked, waving a hand in farewell as Shinji was dragged out of the door of her flat by what appeared to be one very stressed German redhead.

-

Reviews are greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.


	2. Chapter 2

Second chapter. See part 1 for disclaimers. 

-

"What do you mean, 'I made you'?" Asuka's shout could be heard all around the quad that lunchtime. The vast majority of the pupils – with the exception of Hikari, Touji and Kensuke, all of whom were standing nearby, unsure whether to try intervening or not – ignored the show the eccentric German girl was making of herself.

Shinji looked up at the redhead from where he sat on the tarmac of the quad after she had decked him.

"Gomen, Asuka… but you dragged me out of the apartment this morning so quickly that I forgot I left them on the table!"

Asuka leaned forward, and Shinji cowered back a little as if fearing a second strike. "Well, now we have sorted out the issue of whose fault it is, forgetting my lunch, you'll just have to go and fetch it, won't you?"

Shinji winced. He would not make it back in time for the next lesson if he had to go to Misato's apartment and back. And while sensei was very good at staring out of the window and reminiscing about Second Impact – or rather, the sanitised version that had been spoon-fed to every civilian on the planet, which was rather tamer than the version Shinji now knew to be the truth – he had one other skill that many in the class would forget at their peril: he was a _demon_ when it came to punctuality.

He would rather you did not show up at all, than arrive in the middle of his lecturing.

Nodding slowly, Shinji climbed to his feet. Bowing deeply to the German girl, not looking at her eyes to avoid the smirk he knew he would find there, he moved toward the main entrance of the school.

Touji and Kensuke caught him just before he stepped over the boundary.

"You can't be serious, man!" Touji practically bellowed, "That Red Devil will hang you out to dry with sensei for no more reason than she's _hungry_?"

Shinji smiled weakly at him and Kensuke, "It could be worse, Touji-kun. Besides, I have a few errands I need to take care of, and it's easier if Asuka isn't with me."

_Quite happy to shop for clothes_, his subconscious griped, _but totally incapable of shopping for food or other basic necessities! Does she realise how damned embarrassing it is to for a guy to have to buy sanitary towels in _bulk_?! I get odd looks every time I go in that store now!_

The two remaining 'stooges' watched downcast as Shinji walked away without looking back.

From the classroom, the calm gaze of Ayanami Rei watched Shinji leave impassively. Then it moved to the cause of his departure, and her eyes narrowed.

The relationship between Asuka and Rei was not a simple one. It could not be summed up with simple words like 'hate' or 'disinterest'. Asuka positively _loathed_ Rei, for no reason the blue-haired girl could determine adequately to quell her puzzlement. Rei found Asuka loud, overbearing and utterly arrogant – a combination that, in the quieter girls view – made her a large target. Arrogant belief in your own capabilities was no shield when the facts stood dispassionately against that arrogance. Zealousness had its place on a battlefield… but not at the risk of ones' own life or the life of a comrade.

Rei found herself moving out of the classroom without thinking about where she was headed.

She could always ask the commander to provide a cover story for her absence that afternoon, if so required. Sensei often seemed to forget she was there – a quirk of fate she was quite content to allow to continue.

Even as she hurried down the steps, Rei acknowledged that feeling.

She was chasing a boy for no reason she could voice, save that he was a fellow pilot who seemed to be in some form of psychological distress given his posture as he had exited the school – and yet… and yet, she was _content_.

Rei tried to shake off the unsettled feeling in the pit of her stomach at that.

-

Shinji had boarded the train to take him back to Misato's apartment in case Asuka had decided to trail him to make sure he did as he was told. When no one he recognised – certainly not the bright red hair of his housemate – moved by him as the train pulled out of the station, he let out a brief sigh.

Settling the ear-buds of his SDAT in place, he felt, then heard the response as he pressed play. Idly, he toyed with his NERV-issue cell phone in his pocket, before deliberately pressing the off button by feel. His eyes slid closed as he let the music take him away from it all.

…

Five minutes later, after the next stop, he felt a comforting presence sit down opposite him.

"Ikari-kun, why are you running away again? Did you not learn the futility of that act the last time you did so?"

Shinji, if he had had a drink, would have spat it all over the slight girl in shock.

"A-A-A-A-Ayanami-san!"

He bolted upright, eyes wide in fear at the first child.

_When did _she_ get on the train?!_

"H-H-How… how did you find me?"

"Why are you running away again, Ikari-san?" Rei became more formal – and far more distant as she repeated herself.

Shinji realised that he would not get an answer from her unless he gave her what she was after first. Rei had a single-mindedness at times that both awed and frightened him. Her single-minded drive to defeat the Angels… and to satisfy any curiosity that might have crossed her mind.

He didn't know it, but Akagi Ritsuko would have classified Ayanami's current behaviour as wildly abnormal, and as such, requiring the termination of that Rei and the programming of another to take her place.

"I… wasn't running away, Ayanami-san," Shinji began hesitantly, "I just… needed some time alone to think."

"Then why did you disable your cell? In the event of an Angel attack, NERV cannot contact you without it." The calm, clinical analysis of the situation from the slight girl made Shinji even more nervous than being around the girl herself.

"I…"

Rei's cell phone rang, and she answered it within a half a ring.

"Moshi moshi?"

…

"Hai."

…

"Hai."

…

"Hai. I am aware of the current location of the third child."

…

…

Shinji began to fidget, Rei's eyes never leaving him as she listened to the phone intently.

Finally, without saying goodbye to whoever she had been talking to, the cell snapped shut so suddenly Shinji jumped.

"Your presence is required by the commander. I will accompany you to make sure you are not delayed or… lost."

Shinji nodded, knowing that fighting it was only going to make it worse. Whatever his father wanted him for, it had to be important – Ikari Gendo only ever remembered that he had a son when it served his purpose.

Shinji swallowed uneasily, and then in a rare moment of optimism, tried to see the positive side of this turn of events.

He now had a legitimate reason – backed up by the commander of NERV himself – why he had not returned with Asuka's lunch, or returned for afternoon school.

That was a plus.

However, that was by far offset by the fact that he would have to face his father again. In his office. The cold eyes. Behind those fiery glasses. Behind the pose. The clasped hands in front of the nose and mouth, obscuring any others view. _The pose._ Shinji felt the panic rising as he remembered the last time he had stood in front of that glare.

"Ikari-kun," Rei broke through his increasing hysteria with a soft word, "unless the commander orders me to attend duty elsewhere, I will be with you."

Shinji didn't know why that reassurance made him feel so much better.

Rei didn't know why that made her feel like a chasm was about to open underneath her.

The fragment of Lillith deep within Rei's soul cried out in torment, unheard and unheeded.

The two EVA pilots walked side-by-side, shoulders so close that all they would had to have done was flex their fingers and their hands would be intertwined.

Neither noticed; each was lost in their own personal nightmare.

-

Ikari Gendo knew that he would draw the wrath of Katsuragi down upon him when she found out what he had done to his son this time, but he would take pleasure in reminding her of the chain of command within NERV.

Very great pleasure.

Besides, there was no hope of achieving his goals without breaking some people in the process.

And since his son was already broken, breaking him further – to the point where the boy would be a crying, shivering wreck – did not present Gendo with any significant difficulties. Further breaking something that was already broken seemed like a far better use of materiel and personnel than breaking someone who was fully functional and able to carry out their duties, after all.

It was all for Yui.

And that was all the justification he needed.

A part of him wondered whether SEELE were right with calling his son Nephilim. He certainly did not seem to have the drive to be such a… force of God and nature. But it might explain his abilities against the Angels.

Idly, he wondered whether the Angelic portion of Shinji's nature had come from him or Yui, or from some other external source that he was unaware of. He already knew that Ikari Yui had been a goddess among mortals. A very slight smirk appeared at one corner of his lips with this thought, before a soft tap at his door causes it to vanish behind the iron-clad mask he wore since Yui died.

"Come."

Shinji and Rei entered, both attired in their school uniforms, walking in sync and with mere microns separating the backs of hands from each other. Gendo raised an eyebrow fractionally, but otherwise did not comment.

If Shinji could be manipulated via manipulation of Rei; all the better. Rei was the perfect child, after all… the puppet that danced to the tune of her master – Ikari Gendo.

"You called for me, father?" Shinji already appeared nervous enough to bolt back out the door… as futile as such an action would have been given the Section Two agents guarding said door.

Gendo remained silent for a long moment.

Rei stood passively, unmoving, focussed on something only she could see, but eyes locked on Gendo.

Shinji, on the other hand, fidgeted like he had ants in his pants. Looking everywhere but at his father, seeking out something in the spartanly furnished office to lock his gaze to so he didn't go mad from the measuring glare that his father had fixed on him.

It was nearly five minutes later, when Shinji was reaching what appeared to be critical nervousness, that Gendo finally snapped, "Do you like Rei?"

Shinji gawped, "Nani?"

Ayanami's gaze moved back from the distant world it was staring in to, to fix solidly on her commander and father figure. This was hardly the question she was expecting. Indeed, if there was one question that Ikari Gendo could have asked his son that would have made her both shiver with anticipation and trepidation, it was that one. Anticipation of his answer, trepidation that it would be both the answer she craved, and the answer that she most feared.

Gendo rarely had to repeat himself, which was good as he found it possibly one of the most irritating things anyone else had to do.

"Do… you… like… Rei?"

He bit the words out with a pause between each, a whip-crack viciousness in each.

Shinji looked at Rei for one terrified moment, swallowed deeply and whispered his answer.

"…hai."

-

Reviews are appreciated. Comments and Critique. Thanks.


	3. Chapter 3

See part 1 for disclaimer.

- 

"We were too late," Gendo said this calmly to the pillars surrounding him. "The eighth Angel emerged from the volcano before we could even get the EVAs on site."

"So Sandalphon is free?"

Gendo pushed his glasses further up his nose, "That is broadly correct," he admitted, "however EVA units 01 and 02 are _en route_ to the volcano – a hot drop should mean that they engage the Angel in…" he looked at his watch, "four minutes."

Lorenz' voice was cold as he replied, "This was not what we planned. We were supposed to be able to examine this Angel, Ikari. You have disappointed us with your handling of the Angel situation since the sixth. The loss of two _Iowa_-class battleships was a considerable blow for our influence on the American government… or what remains of it."

"If the intelligence given to us is incorrect or delayed, do not blame it on NERV."

Lorenz sneered, but said nothing.

Then the connection was cut.

Gendo remained, silent and stationary; waiting for the alarm to sound indicating EVA contact with the Angel.

-

Misato grinned, trying to act brash but instead making her nervousness obvious – if anyone was looking for it.

"Shinji! Asuka! We're about to inject LCL!"

Shinji's voice came back over his radio softly, and had it not been for the fact that Misato _knew_ Rei wasn't on this mission, she would have thought they had swapped minds.

"Hai."

"Sure, Misato!" Asuka's voice came back so loudly that the purple-haired woman had to move the earpiece away for a moment and wince, "I'll beat this Angel into paste!"

Misato pulled a face, "This was supposed to be a search and capture mission, but the Angel woke early. So now it's a search and destroy… still, I think Ritsuko and the other science geeks would like to examine this one; if you could refrain from tearing it into shreds, Shinji-kun?"

Shinji was silent.

Misato shook her head, "Transports are t-minus twenty seconds from drop. Prepare for hot insertion, Shinji, Asuka."

She watched their sync ratios spike as adrenaline was released, and then settle again – three points higher than they had been before.

"…Good…"

"Three. Two. One… release clamps!"

EVA Unit 01 and EVA Unit 02 dropped as the transport helicopters released their magnetic clamps, freefalling to the ground where they threw up clouds of dust and dirt with impact.

Misato smirked as she saw Asuka do a somersault before landing crouched. Shinji, oddly, didn't even bother to right his EVA, instead letting it land face-first in the ground. Long before the dust had settled, the two of them burst into movement and headed toward the signal the Angel had left on the radar.

Then the two heli-carriers, which had been powering the giant machines from umbilical cables snaking back to them in the sky, exploded in balls of fire.

"We're under fire!" The pilot of her helicopter called, while taking the aircraft to a height that – when Misato looked out the windows – looked like she could just step off the side and be standing on the tops of the trees. "What hit them?"

"I don't know," Misato said far more calmly than she felt at that moment. With new urgency, she barked into the radio, "Shinji, Asuka – you have sixty seconds to find and kill that Angel!"

A raucous laugh was her only reply.

"Asuka… take this seriously," Misato prayed.

-

"Shinji?"

"Yes, Asuka?"

"What do you think that bastard did to the air support?"

"I don't know."

They moved forward quickly, each with one eye on the screen and one on the clock telling them how much power they had left.

"Fifty seconds," Shinji murmured to himself.

Asuka hummed a little tune, before snapping, "There!"

"I see it!" Shinji replied, and the two were off running, each drawing a Progressive knife as they went.

"What I wouldn't give for a gun," Asuka muttered as Shinji leapt above the Angel, allowing her to come from below.

"Asuka, look out!" Misato's warning nearly came too late, as the German twisted her EVA to avoid a fireball that had suddenly appeared where she had been but a fraction of a second before.

"What is it doing…?"

A low voice, almost a chant, came through the comm. on Asuka's private channel.

"Born of the fire," it whispered, "child of flame…"

"Nani?!" Asuka swore prolifically in German before snarling, "Baka-Shinji! Stop trying to distract me!"

Unit 02 moved forward toward the Angel again, knife at the ready in a reverse grip.

"Just you and me, yeah…" Asuka whispered to the Angel, "Baka-Shinji's out of it, just you and me."

Small bubbles formed in the LCL, and went unnoticed by the girl as the pressure control systems in the Entry Plug dealt with the change.

"Flame-born fool, return to ash that bore you…"

"Shinji, what are you saying? Are you alright?" Misato's voice cut across the words.

Reaching her target, Asuka drove her progressive knife up the hilt into the Angel, before putting the EVAs weight behind it and forcing it deeper, her clenched fists sinking into the Angel after it.

Then she screamed.

"Sooo… HOOOOT!"

This seemed to shake Shinji out of whatever trance he had been in, "Asuka!"

"My hands! They're on fire! Put it out! Put it out… put it out put it out putitoutputitoutputitout…" Asuka's transmission died as the power to the EVAs ended, and back in the helicopter Misato screamed at the equipment in futile rage at the situation her wards were in.

"Put her down," she said coldly to the pilot. "I'm going to get her out."

"That's suicide," the pilot retorted, "I won't do it."

Misato's eyes spat fire just as hot as the Angel, and drew her service firearm, "You will."

The pilot took one look at her eyes, and swallowed slowly.

"But only here. Any closer and we risk getting shot down."

"That will be fine," Misato ground out.

As the helicopter landed gently on the ground, Misato leapt and started sprinting toward where the EVAs last signal had come from.

Shinji was still in a dream. The scenery changed quickly, but three things remained – he could see his fellow pilot lying injured, and the cause of that injury standing over her.

He could also feel his mother. He could not see her, but the warmth of her embrace was an almost physical thing. Comfort and kindness.

It was saying something that he could barely grasp, but instinctively knew anyway.

_I won't let anything hurt you_.

_Really?_

_Yes._

_But it hurt Asuka…_

_I would kill it before it hurt you._

-

"Unit 01 has reactivated!"

The shout went up at NERV HQ, watching through data-trans from the primary helicopter that Misato had just abandoned.

Gendo sat calmly, "And where is Katsuragi-chou?"

Maya winced as she relayed, "Katsuragi-chou appears to have abandoned the command to try to help Unit 02."

Gendo took this without comment.

Rei was silently watching the proceedings from beside his desk.

"Unit 01…"

Gendo looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, "Yes, Rei?"

"It frightens me."

Gendo was silent at this quiet declaration.

Rei said no more as their attention was drawn back to the main view screen by an animal roar.

-

Unit 01 was berserk.

But this time, its foe was something that could melt it if it got too close. The Angel's AT field fluctuated around it like a corona of flame, coruscating and throwing off light throughout the whole of the spectrum.

So it kept its distance.

Shinji watched dispassionately as the warning alarms told him of near-fatal radiation levels emanating from the Angel and it's AT field… then watched as the readings dropped off, slowly at first before accelerating, before the Angel's AT field disappeared as if it hadn't been there at all.

He felt his EVA vault backwards as the air temperature increased and a ball of plasma appeared where he had been crouched.

He could see, he could move… but he had no control. The EVA moved of its own accord.

It dodged twice more as the odd plasma bursts appeared, then leapt forward in an attempt to get to the Angel before its AT field reformed as defence.

It slammed into the field hard, beating a fist and screaming in rage against it in frustration before moving away again and watching – almost in fascination – as the metal plating liquefied and flowed off.

-

_I protect you._

_I know._

_I need your aid. _

_Possibly._

_Dispassion leads to weakness._

_How so?_

_Caring is strength._

_Caring is _weakness

_No. To love is to live._

A mental snort of disgust echoed.

_Help me?_

_No._

_You were born to kill!_

_I was born of nothing._

_You are wrong. You were born of me._

An overwhelming feeling of love washed over.

_Your experiences have made me cold. I have seen them when we have synchronised._

_So?_

_Your nurture fights your nature._

_And?_

_One cannot be one without the other._

_Your point?_

_Accept what you are._

A mental scream of pain as something in the outside came too close to dodge.

The next was not just a request – it was an order.

_ACCEPT YOURSELF._

A twisting feeling… like something settling into a more comfortable mental spot.

_Good._

-

Reviews are welcomed. Thank you.


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